Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote:I think that all members of the thousand post club should identify themselves.

That lets me out. I'm over 2000.

I enjoyed the aurora images from the north hemisphere.
Sadly the aurora oval is really unfavourable for Argentina, we don't have auroras not even far south. I wonder why such a punishment.
But oh well Venus and Mercury will be joining a 2% crescent moon tomorrow and I hope to see that, maybe take a photo too.

Beyond wrote:

neufer wrote:
I think that all members of the thousand post club should identify themselves.

That lets me out. I'm over 2000.

We all know that you are old, Beyond, but you can't be that ugly.

neufer wrote:

Beyond wrote:

neufer wrote:
I think that all members of the thousand post club should identify themselves.

That lets me out. I'm over 2000.

We all know that you are old, Beyond, but you can't be that ugly.

Average-beautiful-ugly; I'm Beyond it all.

Ann wrote:Congrats, TNT! Then you have seen something I've never seen, although I live much further to the north than you do!

Ann- that's terrible. How have you managed to miss seeing auroras? The first ones I saw were along the border of Sweden and Finland (I don't remember which side I was on, but it wasn't all that far north), and saw them many times while living in Denmark. And I've even seen them a half dozen times here in Colorado- during the last solar maximum and just a couple of nights ago.

Is your love of the night sky recently acquired? That is, since the Sun was last active in the early and mid 2000s?

Is your love of the night sky recently acquired? That is, since the Sun was last active in the early and mid 2000s?

I acquired it in 1969. But by that time my family had already moved south from the northern town of Luleå, where I was born. My parents have told me that they saw auroras all the time when we lived there, but I wasn't interested back then. Besides, I was a kid, and I was supposed to go to bed early, which I did.

What can I say? I have never regularly stayed out late at night, not really in the summer and definitely not in the winter. In the summer the sky is quite bright here. If the auroras had often been blue, then I think I may have made more of an effort to see them. But now I've missed them, and that's just the way it is.

Ann

Ann wrote:But now I've missed them, and that's just the way it is.

I hope you mean you've missed them so far! The Sun is becoming active again, so you should have many good opportunities in the next few years. (I once saw a beautiful green and purple aurora on the ferry from Rostock to Malmö; perhaps purple is nearly as good as blue? <g>

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for those active aurora opportunities . . . no chance tonight though, very dull and wet here in Yorkshire.

But last night the clouds parted for a while and the stars became visible. I took my very first ever astrophoto of the night sky! It's a first, and although it's not great, at least it is recognisable. It was such a thrill to actually get an image!

Hope you guys don't mind me sharing it with you here, it certainly isn't good enough for the Observation Deck

I don't think I'll be competing with the big guys and submitting officially to APOD any time too soon

Congrats, starstruck! I can see Cassiopeia there! And let's see, isn't that a part of Perseus? And Andromeda?

Congratulations on taking your first ever astrophoto and posting it here!

Ann

Thanks Ann! . . tack!

starstruck! wrote:Thanks Ann! . . tack!

Ingen orsak! Not at all! Varsågod! You are welcome!

(I like the new exlamation mark in your signature!)

Ann

Amazing!

As I often do I glanced out the window after turning off the lights. Tonight the sky looked extremely good for viewing the stars, so I picked up my binoculors, bundled up warmly and went out onto the back deck. And saw something I haven't seen in 24 years at this location. I saw Orion's Nebula and m43 -- in binoculars! Of course I didn't see any of the colour, just a hazy whitish patch for the nebula and a broader-than-a-star bright spot for M43, but there was no doubt as to their identity -- confirmed, using Equinox Pro, when I came back in.

Rob

I saw a crescent moon far to the west.

SNOW!

Dangfraznabbit!

Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, all about two to three degrees apart. They are all in the east.

neptunium wrote:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, all about two to three degrees apart. They are all in the east.

Jupiter rises in the east around sunset, because it's at opposition. Uranus is 33° further west along the ecliptic, and Neptune another 33° from there. That even spacing is kind of cool, but no way could you see them together (and Uranus is very difficult naked eye, while Neptune definitely requires a small telescope).

Make that about twenty-four degrees apart.

neptunium wrote:Make that about twenty-four degrees apart.

How do you figure? Uranus is in the middle, at a declination of about 0°. Jupiter is two hours to the east, and 12° north. Neptune is two hours to the west, and 12° south. Two hours of RA at declination zero is 30°, but because these objects are on a line that is angled with respect to the celestial equator, the angles between them are slightly greater. Very close to 33°.

What I saw in the sky tonight! Nothing! The air was misty and the sky was cloud covered. Nary a star was seen.

Oh I found the problem. I set my telescope's speed to two degrees a second but I made a meausurement as to how far it was going in one second. It was about half a degree shy of two. Maybe my batteries are low

I think I'm going back to hand measuring&.

Shortly before dawn; I saw the trees silhouetted against a fairly dark blue sky!

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote:
Wow, Art, that's a handsome skygazer most certainly not filling his Roche lobe!

I beg your pardon

I think that all members of the thousand post club should identify themselves.

Stalker!

geckzilla wrote:

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote:
Wow, Art, that's a handsome skygazer most certainly not filling his Roche lobe!

I beg your pardon

I think that all members of the thousand post club should identify themselves.

Stalker!

I thought that stalkers were people who followed others secretly for a long time, not someone who wanted to find out who others who have the same condition.

Well, that was a joke, but he did apparently, secretly find a picture of me! But it's not that hard... I think that pic shows up if you search google images for "geckzilla"

Anyway, apologies for diverting the topic. I only just saw that post, though.

Okay, that makes sense.